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Author Topic: Was there a home VTR before Beta? Mike Heenan Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1896 From: Scottsdale, AZ, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 11-28-2005 09:44 PM                     More interesting info.... which I dont have as entirely correct but close to, anyways, the first person to have a home VCR was Lyndon Johnson, then Alfred Hitchcock, and then Richard Dawson, who got Bob Crane hooked on the format.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 11-29-2005 01:53 AM                     quote: Greg Mueller It was called something like "The Great American Movie Machine" or something weird like that. It had proprietary tapes that I think I remember looking like an 8 track tape, and was about the size of the original VHS decks. In late 1976, Quasar, division of Panasonic and both of parent company of Matsushita developed this home VTR machine called the VR-1000, commonly called "the Great Time Machine." This is a pict of my VR-1000 that I purchased back in the spring of 1977- Unit had a sticker price of $999.95 (I now, why not an even grand...). The tape format was called the VX format. Unit was a single head helical scan, full alpha wrap unit. Headdrum spun at 3600 rpm. Tape speed was 2.0 IPS - Head changeout was a very simple, consumer used device. a Left handed thumb knurl held the headdrum down on the motor shaft. Closeup of the headchip assembly. Extremely thin, will shatter easily, yet very rigid. This head wheel is 1 and 7/8 inches across. That gives a circumference of roughly 6.08 inches. Rotating at 59.94 RPS (for NTSC) gives it a head to tape writing speed in the vicinity of 365 IPS. Not bad at all. Here is a pict of one of the tapes: There were three sizes (and box/label colors to match) of tapes. A Black for 60min usage, a Blue for 100min usage and the Red for a 120 min usage. Tape stock was a polished red oxide backcoated with a black coat. Tape reels were stacked one on another, with the takeup reel rotating in the opposite direction of the feed reel. Tape wind within the cartridge was held in place by a circular collar that would retract down into the recorder when the cartridge was loaded, exposing the pre-set loop to be wound and tightened around the headdrum. Prices for these tapes were quite high: $34.95 for the 2hr tape, $29.95 for the 100min tape and $19.95 for the 60min tape. (I remember when the first VHS blank tapes that came out were $24.95 for a blank T-120) Unit was well ahead of its time that almost rivaled BETA with a long write length. But the big fault that this unit had was that the head shaft was belt driven with the only motor that drove all of the mechanisms inside with additional belts. Thus, the head rotation speed would always have a slight speed variation when the belt would gather glaze or stretch due to internal heat, thus keeping a tracking and skewing was a continual problem. Unit had a built in humid warning so that if any moisture were present inside the unit a "dew" light would come on and prevent the unit from operating. To get rid of the humidity, a small "hair dryer" inside would dry out the inside for continual usage. In 1980, Quasar came out with the VR-1550, which was their new VHS recorder with an advertising slogan: "They only have one kind of recorder, where we now have two." Of course, we knew that the VR-1000 was falling out of popularity since the VHS machine was really grabbing a hold on the market, and this was a quiet way for Quasar to phase out the VR-1000 in a quick way.  |  IP: Logged Jesse Skeen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1517 From: Sacramento, CA Registered: Aug 2000 posted 11-29-2005 02:28 AM                     I have one of those machines, but don't know if it works- I've never been able to find any tapes for it.  |  IP: Logged

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